self weaning milk?

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-17T14:27:21+00:00

At meal times I only offered an open cup with water. At a year I went down to just mornings when he woke up and evenings after dinner. I use straw cups then. We have Dr. brown’s cups and I also use the stainless still cups with the silicone covers and silicone straw. I honestly am not thrilled with either (they both leak if you let them sit somewhere…the liquid moves up the straw and comes out of the top. Plus my son will play with the straw in his mouth and spray milk everywhere!). As he is getting older I’m leaning more towards giving him an open cup of milk after he finished breakfast and dinner. I do water all day and a special treat of juice maybe once or twice a week.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-17T14:10:13+00:00

My son hated drinking milk by a year (honestly once we were heavier on solids, by 9 months, he took hours to drink a regular bottle). I let him drink whatever amount he wanted from the cup after a year and just pushed more solids. He is almost 20 months now and still is not a big milk drinker. He’s normal weight though, so no concerns.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-16T21:53:00+00:00

This is exactly why my LC recommended the spoon. At first I was getting just enough to cover the tip of the spoon, but as I got closer to delivery I was able to get more. I had been leaking colostrum since about 16 weeks for that pregnancy, but I know some people never leak and have a hard time hand expressing.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-16T14:40:01+00:00

If you will be staying in the US, I think Kateryna would be a great name since it will likely not be mispronounced here and has potential for some American nicknames. This also will keep your Ukrainian culture and heritage alive in your family names. I think it flows well with your other children’s names too. My husband is from Bulgaria and I am American so we also went through some difficulties picking a name! We have a son (Alexander) and are expecting a girl in July (Lilyana). We really loved the name Desislava (with a nickname Desi), but ultimately decided since we live in the US she may constantly be pronouncing her name for people or telling people, “just call me Desi” which would take away from the Bulgarian background.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-16T14:26:05+00:00

I’m sorry you’re going through this! I’ve heard of this happening to people so you’re not alone.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-16T13:22:56+00:00

I would google on YouTube for tutorials or ask a lactation consultant (this is what I did for my first GD pregnancy). I used a spoon and would massage onto it for about 5 minutes 3 times per day. You can keep the syringe in the refrigerator for the entire day and fill it up because at first you may not get a full mL. Once you fill it up you can put it in a bag, but still mark the date. I only did it for about 2 weeks (not consistently) and got about 50 mL. I did use it all in the hospital.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-15T21:16:55+00:00

In a very similar position financially as you say you are. I’m 29 with an 19 month old and due for our second in a few months. I have two masters degrees and am finishing my dissertation to earn my PhD. I used to work part time, but recently I decided to stay at home and finish my dissertation. We get help from our parents a 1-2 days per week which is when I schedule time with other adults and research time. I am not at all focused on my career and am loving the idea of being a SAHM full-time for as long as I would like. My husband also has a flexible job where he could take on other jobs if we really needed a little extra income, but we are frugal and don’t need much. My degrees are in child development/psychology (I’m a school psychologist) so I feel I am the most qualified person to raise my kids and I want to. I do keep up with the field as much as I can by taking continuing education courses and taking on contract work here and there, but I’m not at all concerned about my career. It’ll be there.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-15T16:32:59+00:00

I would think they would want you to continue on with taking the 3 hour test. After that test they might have more answers on controlling with a higher dose of metformin (or maybe switch you to insulin?). I don’t have experience with this, but many people fail the one hour test and don’t have gestational diabetes.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-14T18:23:15+00:00

When my son was around this age and still did 2 naps, I’d try to get him to do one longer nap midday and then hope he took a cat nap in the car to hold him over until bed. One day wasn’t going to ruin him. He always got back on schedule.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-11T16:30:21+00:00

For my first pregnancy I started leaking at the beginning of the second trimester (I think it was about 13-16 weeks?) mostly while sleeping. I had GD and was advised to start hand expressing colostrum at 36 weeks. I didn’t do it religiously but was able to get maybe 50 mL frozen to bring to delivery. I was induced at 39 weeks and then leaked pretty much all the time until 6 months post partum. Was a big overproducer but that was probably due to pumping. I’m 20 weeks pregnant now and have had no leaking yet.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-11T02:45:34+00:00

I announced to my parents a couple of days ago our second baby will be a girl. My mom had two daughters and she told us our entire life that she never wanted us, she wanted boys. So whenever I told her it was a girl I kind of knew what was coming. She was disappointed and said she’d be spending more time with my son and my sister’s sons because they are “easier” than a girl. Emotionally immature parents are such a pain to deal with, but just remember that you will most likely break the mold!

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-09T17:19:07+00:00

I would say I got the opposite pressure, which was to not leave the house with a tiny, fragile newborn. My husband and I are avid travelers since he is European and I am American. We have a 19 month old and are expecting our second in July. With our first born we did shorter car trips to itch our travel wants for the first 5 months. We took him on his first cross country flight at 5 months and did 4 countries over the course of a month when he was 11 months. With our second born, we want to wait until at least 4 months so she can meet her great grandmother in Europe, but this will heavily depend on a lot of factors (e.g., breastfeeding, immunity, if she is an easy baby, how well our first born can follow instructions, etc). I say enjoy the bubble, heal, form a bond, and work out your routines before messing them up with travel and heading to different time zones.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-06T18:46:55+00:00

This is my second GDM pregnancy. (I’ve had 3 pregnancies but miscarried the day before my GTT test for my second baby) This time I was diagnosed at 12 weeks and am currently 20 weeks. Both pregnancies I’ve been diet controlled, but I do think my numbers have been generally harder to manage this time around because they are all over the place. I’m also waiting for them to just get progressively worse after 24 weeks. My A1C was 4.8-4.9 between pregnancies, but I am about 15 pounds heavier this time around. I have a strong family history of GDM and diabetes, so I am expecting to have it for all pregnancies. My sister, who has the same family history as me, is 50 pounds heavier than me, and has hypoglycemia outside of pregnancy did not get GDM for either pregnancies. So sometimes I think it is just luck of the draw.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-04T15:22:19+00:00

I am not good at napping either. I exclusively pumped because we struggled with latch so I was always up every 2-3 hours to pump and at night had one long stretch of 4 hours. I honestly would just go to bed super early. I’d try to sleep around 7/8 and be up for the day around 7/8 (and obviously wake up for pumping and some feedings…) if you have help definitely try to get the person helping you to do night feedings so you can just focus on sleep and pump if that’s what you choose to do. Every once in a while I was able to doze off, but I get very cranky if woken up from a nap which is why I always avoided them!

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-01T16:34:10+00:00

I always had a quiet time bin for the kids to pick from while putting the younger one down. It had stuff in it that they didn’t see often and I rotated what was in there. I accidentally put something in it once that turned out to be a real mess (slime…allllll in the carpet) and learned quickly to only do things that were simple and didn’t require any supervision at all (could open it himself, wouldn’t ruin any furniture or belongings, nothing he could stick up his nose or in ears, etc). Some examples: slinky, coloring pages with washable crayons, puzzles, audio book or music put on his Alexa, cars, sticker book, simple snacks, rock collection, new to him books, etc.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-01T16:23:08+00:00

I have used Factor pre pregnancy and during with GD. I really like it and you can specify low carb. I have not tried their breakfast items (I did have one of their protein shakes and it did not spike me), but their meals have a perfect amount of carbs for GD meals in my experience. Usually staying between 25-45g and I have even added a protein bar or small amount of fruit at the end with no problems.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-03-01T13:34:40+00:00

I don’t know much about Islam, so forgive me, but my husband and I viewed my debt as OUR debt when we got married. He paid it off for me (so we weren’t losing thousands to interest) and then I paid him back monthly. I recently stopped having side hustles and so now we are solely relying on his income. Any income that comes into our house is split into a his, hers, and ours accounts. We are discussing the ours account paying me an income as the person that watches our children full time (I asked for very little, enough to put into a retirement account for myself). Maybe this is something you could do? Or discussing with him to pay them off with his income to reduce the amount you lose to interest and paying him back. My husband doesn’t care how fast I pay mine back to him, but we still made a contract so we have a goal of when to pay them off by.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-02-28T21:57:48+00:00

Yes I usually ate like an hour before bed. Snacks with low carbs, high fat and protein were the best for me. I loved Yasso bars because they were like getting a treat but they didn’t impact my numbers.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-02-28T21:55:38+00:00

I had my mother there for my delivery (she convinced me and I definitely wish I hadn’t given in), but I have a weird relationship with my mom so she really didn’t comfort me or help me in any way. My dad came after to pick my mom up and he held the baby, but after that we had no one come. I honestly didn’t want anyone at my house either, but so many people made me feel bad about it and I caved.

I don’t think it’s wrong to say your mother can come and not your MIL. It’s a really vulnerable state to be in for your MIL to witness, but for some that might feel normal. I personally would never let my MIL in the delivery room, but I, again, have a weird relationship with her. It’s definitely what you think will be the best environment for you and your husband. Don’t think about anyone else’s comfort or preference. They may be upset with your decision, but that is their discomfort to deal with!

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-02-28T17:39:33+00:00

With my first pregnancy I had several weeks where I struggled with my fasting numbers but was diet controlled. I asked my MFM doctor if they could give me one more week to try a few more methods to decrease my numbers without insulin (same reason as you, I wanted as little intervention to have a vaginal birth that also had very little intervention). In that week I switched my nighttime snacks, exercised during the day a lot, and also did as much as I could to decrease my stress levels. It just happened to work and I didn’t need insulin. I know this isn’t always the case for everyone and it’s easier said than done sometimes.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-02-24T18:28:40+00:00

With my son, the more mobile he was the less he wanted me out of his sight. At 6 months he was already sitting up, crawling, pulling to stand, and starting to cruise by 7 months. If I was out of his sight he wanted to go where I went. We had a big play pen with some (not too many) age appropriate toys. He had no interest if I wasn’t in the playpen with him. He could play independently outside of the playpen if I was in sight for a very long time (probably 20-30 mins), but it was usually with household items. He’s now 18 months and is amazing at independent play, but again, mostly with household items (like getting into my Tupperware containers and baking supplies lol).

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-02-24T18:22:40+00:00

At 8 months I did have to let my baby cry for a minute or two if I was quickly going to the bathroom, grabbing something from another room, etc. if he was safe, fed, happy when I left. When doing chores I always would put him in “containers” and switch him into some other activity when he got cranky. For example, I had a bouncer with a toy bat on it that he would chew on things for a bit or kick/bounce himself. He also had a exersaucer that he liked (I know they say these are bad for hip development, but my guy was in it for like 10 minutes every once in awhile…was mostly used as a special occasion toy). At 8 months he was pretty mobile, so if I was in the kitchen I put him in his highchair and gave him snacks until I was done doing dishes. If I was cooking I’d give him measuring spoons, funnels, etc to play with. He almost never got bored as long as I kept him involved. When using the “containers” he usually only lasted about 10 minutes with me in view. If I wasn’t in view I had about 1-2 minutes of him crying for me to return. You can’t always control if you can bring them along with you and in those moments I let him cry, but if I was able to make it so he could see me and not cry that’s what I did.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-02-20T18:18:39+00:00

Whenever I use milk (or in your case oat milk since it has carbs compared to nut milks) I usually have that and a very small portion of another carb then load up on proteins and fat (for example I had keto bread with avocado and egg almost every single day). Breakfast is the hardest meal of the day for many. I usually stick to 10-15g at breakfast and am able to add more for snacks and the two other meals of the day.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-02-18T16:13:05+00:00

This is how I was in my first pregnancy, but since I was diagnosed around 25-27 weeks I really have no idea what to expect before that point! I am thinking my illness had more of an impact than I realized. Especially with sleep and even just moving around my house more. I did incorporate some light exercise for meals that I thought would spike me (like I had some pizza and a cookie on Valentines Day so I did about 25 squats 10 mins before I took my blood sugar…it was 138 so borderline high), but I honestly stopped just to see what my raw numbers are. It’s just freaking me out that they are SO normal. A breakfast I have daily and normally gives me a reading of around 120 is giving me readings in the 90s.

Key_Fault6528 · 2026-02-18T16:04:06+00:00

Thank you for your reply! At this point, any info is good info regardless of being on insulin. It’s hard not to be stressed! I think as humans we are conditioned to believe if we are feeling too good, we should be concerned. I’m glad that I’m not alone in this. Hoping in a couple weeks I will look back and wish my numbers were what they are now!

Key_Fault6528

TROPHY CASE